Let's Hear From The Other Two Bidders ?

[div]

It would certainly be nice to hear at least who they are and what their headline plans are for the club should their takeover be successful.

Perhaps 10000Hours are in an exclusivity period until next Friday so they aren't allowed to go public in the meantime, or maybe they just don't want to break cover and be seen to be competing against a Fans led takeover until 10000Hours have had their opportunity to close the deal ?

Either way if I was them and I was serious about buying the club I'd be engineering a wee publicitiy leak this week to try and turn heads.

Personally I have many fears about "international" owners. If they are not ex-pat Paisley buddies then the question would surely be "why get involved ?".

Business people only invest money in a project if they think there will be a return.

If St.Mirren were currently stricken with loads of debt and had a giant potential sleeping fan base to call on then I could see it, but what possible return could an investor take out of a club that is running well with a break even position, inside a market that is best described as being volatile.

There is scope for growing our average gates, sure, a more successful team on the park might bring an extra couple of thousand through the door but at the end of the day that's about as far as we could go. Commercially the club could be run better, no question of that and everyone would agree, SG has alluded to that himself in today's press article.

The transfer market is the only other area where an investor could hope to reap a return. Bringing in players from an overseas market and looking to showcase and sell them on. It's a model that has never worked to my knowledge anywhere else but the concept itself of being a showcase or feeder club or whatever you want to call it could I suppose generate decent returns on investment - but at what price to the performances of the football club ?

Guess that would depend entirely on the quality of player you bring in. With the best will in the world top drawer players don't come to Scotland to advertise their availability ?

Claude Anelka tried this model at Raith Rovers and it collapsed, with the club being relegated to the Scottish 2nd Division.

The game is littered with stories of foreign owners;

Dundee, Livingston & Hearts are all examples of where it has happened in Scotland. Whilst Hearts have at least been successful there is a very large bubble there waiting to pop and it will exploded sooner or later.

In England for all the glory that Man City have enjoyed there are also the likes of Blackburn, Liverpool, West Ham and Birmingham City to name but a few where it hasn't gone well. Let's not forget either that the Glazier family bought Man Utd using borrowing they secured against Man Utd and put the club £800m into debt as a result. They are probably just about big enough to climb out of that hole but don't forget the green and yellow scarf brigade and the message they were delivering - they wanted the Glaziers out.

For me there is no model of ownership outside of the St.Mirren support that I would be comfortable with. If we had a local businessman or consortium taking on the club I could see it. There are plenty of reasons why local people would get involved with the club. At the end of the day that is what we have in the boardroom today and it hasn't done us badly to say the least.

Keeping the majority shareholding within the St.Mirren community is what I want to see happen, so let's hear from these other bidders, let's put cards on the table and tell us YOUR plans for St.Mirren should your takeover be successful.

[aldo_j]

The problem is that they don't actually have to tell us anything about their bid as they don't require any fans backing or participation. Sure, they may one day have a fan on the board but that means very little.

The club will also be legally bound not to disclose any information on the parties. So it's really up to the consortia interested to come forward....and I can't see it happening.

If the CIC fails then we can all but pray they hold the same interests in our great club as the previous board has.

[div]

I spoke with Stewart Gilmour this morning on this subject, his reply was;

Other parties we are in discussions with are all signed into confidentiality agreements which protect the sensitive information of the football club and people potentially abusing this. As such we, the consortium, are bound by these same agreements, it's highly unlikely that the prospective purchasers will become public.

Fair enough and as I suspected.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

I spoke with Stewart Gilmour this morning on this subject, his reply was;

Fair enough and as I suspected.

Its all too convenient, especially if you are a cynical old bassa like me

[St. Sid]

Its all too convenient, especially if you are a cynical old bassa like me

'Mon the cynics!

[Guest TPAFKATS]

'Mon the cynics!

Is that a cynic emoticon or a shull one?

[bud77]

'Other parties we are in discussions with are all signed into confidentiality agreements which protect the sensitive information of the football club and people potentially abusing this. As such we, the consortium, are bound by these same agreements, it's highly unlikely that the prospective purchasers will become public.'

That makes me wonder what the bidders have to hide. Given what's happened/happening up the road I think every supporter should seriously consider what this means. It could end up that the first thing we know about new owners is a sign on the official web site saying 'under new management'

[Buddiemodo]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/exclusive-st-mirren-chairman-may-sell-club-to-overseas-investors.17819873

Don't really know if this is good or bad. It implies that there are people looking to invest in the club if the CiC fails, but i'm worried that it might be a bit desperate/rushed.

A bit of help from those more informed than me would be appreciated.

[St. Sid]

Sadly there's no info on the other 2 bidders as it is all tied up in confidentiality agreements - apparently. I think the identity of the two bidders doesn't really matter to be fair. The clear message from SG is that they will sell no matter what now - a real shame as the steady footing we have now aftr all those years of uncertainty is beign thrown away...irrespective of whether its the CIC approach or the traditional approach. The quite pleasant debt free comfort zone of knowing the club is in safe hands is now gone. Basically SG is telling us that he and the consortium are no longer a safe pair of hands...personally not convinced of that, but wouldn't bet on it. Big decision for fans to make now. We have all been put in a very difficult position.

[E=Mc2]

If I was buying St.Mirren with £2m I would first be trying to persuade Stewart Gilmour to sell me the club first before I considered going public.

Why would anyone go public with their plans until they are in control?

[St. Sid]

'Other parties we are in discussions with are all signed into confidentiality agreements which protect the sensitive information of the football club and people potentially abusing this. As such we, the consortium, are bound by these same agreements, it's highly unlikely that the prospective purchasers will become public.'

That makes me wonder what the bidders have to hide. Given what's happened/happening up the road I think every supporter should seriously consider what this means. It could end up that the first thing we know about new owners is a sign on the official web site saying 'under new management'

Bud77.....10000 Hours have been unable to be as transparent as they would like to be either. There's a lot at stake here. If there's one pie left on the dinner table in a house full of greedy b'st'rts no one states their intention of blagging it - they simply shove it straight in their pie hole. Private bidders have no need to confer with fans as they are using their own resources to fund their bids. Once their bids are complete they might come to us / they might go to SMiSA regards fan representation. They might ask us if we want to have a membership scheme to fund the supporters bar.

In reality they will be doing what 10000 Hours are doing. Putting together their bids and making an offer to the consortium. 10000 Hours are using our money as part of their bid, plus they have had to engage with us to access the Bii loan, never mind all the money that appeared to be available before - that is why we know some information - but still don't have access to all of it.

[Jeremiah Cole]

The game is littered with stories of foreign owners;

Dundee, Livingston & Hearts are all examples of where it has happened in Scotland.

When did Dundee have foreign owners?

[davidg]

When did Dundee have foreign owners?

Not owner but director. That Di Stefano guy.

[Stuart Dickson]

When did Dundee have foreign owners?

Ron Nixon was Canadian and Jim Duffy was always in the paper saying he only went to one or two games

[davidg]

Ron Nixon was Canadian and Jim Duffy was always in the paper saying he only went to one or two games

Yup

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/the-thoughts-of-chairman-ron-tracked-down-the-elusive-football-chief-who-breaks-his-silence-to-shoot-from-the-lip-1.649529

[bud77]

Bud77.....10000 Hours have been unable to be as transparent as they would like to be either. There's a lot at stake here. If there's one pie left on the dinner table in a house full of greedy b'st'rts no one states their intention of blagging it - they simply shove it straight in their pie hole. Private bidders have no need to confer with fans as they are using their own resources to fund their bids. Once their bids are complete they might come to us / they might go to SMiSA regards fan representation. They might ask us if we want to have a membership scheme to fund the supporters bar.

In reality they will be doing what 10000 Hours are doing. Putting together their bids and making an offer to the consortium. 10000 Hours are using our money as part of their bid, plus they have had to engage with us to access the Bii loan, never mind all the money that appeared to be available before - that is why we know some information - but still don't have access to all of it.

I appreciate all of that but if another bidder was to even say 'I am Joe Bloggs and I have made an offer for St Mirren' it would at least allow us to do some internet searches and get an idea of the people behind these bids. When Richard Atkinson came on the scene all those years ago, I certainly ran a search on Maxi Group and Richard as I'm sure others did.

These bids might be beneficial or they might not be, they might engage the support or they might not. If I was bidding for the club knowing there was an ongoing fans bid, I would be trying to get as many fans as possible on my side from the outset or at least give them some information on the alternative bid.

Oh and if there's one pie left, my strategy is usually to ask ' do you want that ?' most people are too polite to say yes, but if they do say yes, I just say tough shit.

[alanmurray24]

Tony Fitzpatrick said last night that he still had good contacts in football and mentioned that if it was one of the names that he has heard off he would not want them to be involved with them. He has worked with these people before and did not like them.

I take it was at his time with Livingston just before them went into admin, sorry cant remember their name

[div]

Massone.

[Big Fras]

The SPL's much vaunted "new & stringent" measures for the fit & proper test cannae be up to much !

[Jeremiah Cole]

Ron Nixon was Canadian and Jim Duffy was always in the paper saying he only went to one or two games

Dundee's disasters came when the Scottish Marr brothers were the owners rather than the foreigners didn't they?

Similarly, it was Scottish owners who initially put Livingston into the mire.

[Vambo57]

Massone.

Bless you.

[chico]

Dundee's disasters came when the Scottish Marr brothers were the owners rather than the foreigners didn't they?

Similarly, it was Scottish owners who initially put Livingston into the mire.

Wasn't it d*vie h*y?

[div]

Livvy crashed twice. First time under Dominic Keane and the lottery winning dude, second time under Angelo Massone.

[Frank McGarvey' wonky legs]

Massone's name was mentioned in the pde a few weeks/months ago. Another group was the ones that had tried to take over Queen of the South.

I would think that there is possibly another party now interested with the worst fear that we are used as a route into the spl as a newco.

Or is SG simply trying to put the fear into Saints fans to get them to sign up to 10000hrs.

[Dibbles old paperboy]

If i heard RA correctly at the meeting (and i was in the back row and may not have heard every word correctly) it was sounding like SG has asked the SFA to show the St Mirren board the document they would be expected to sign if they sell the club next week and which will require the selling consortium to declare they have done proper due diligence on any new owners and at this stage there is no document in existence for SG and the board to sign!

The SFA know that in the next week 2 SPL clubs could begin changing ownership and have just voted in a rule change to make the sellers of a club responsible for selling to 'fit and proper' persons and to sign a document saying they have done all reasonable due diligence but as yet the SFA can't provide a document or draft document so any sellers of clubs can see what they are supposed to sign off.

Crazy!

The other concern with the new SFA resolution is that it looks as if it is just there to cover their own backs post-Craig Whyte, so if another club owner looks dodgy no one can moan why did the SFA not stop them gaining control of the club in the first place? It is not clear what the SFA can do if someone sells a club and signs their document to say they have done due diligence and the new owners are fit and proper and then 2 or 3 years down the line there is an insolvency event and voila it looks like the new owners aren't fit and proper after all. The previous owners haven't got involved in another club and are no longer active in football, they could have moved abroad or retired what do the SFA do next?